Win2K SP4 - what's the verdict?

I have been sticking with SP2 since I don't like the "all your soul
are belong to us" EULA of SP3, and loathe the idea of having to
install that verdammte .NET garbage. Nevertheless, I am beginning to
think that staying on SP2 may not be tenable much longer. Now that
it's been out a while, what's the verdict on SP4? I'm running an
Athlon XP2000+, 512MB RAM, RIVA TNT2 32MB video. Will SP4 totally fark
my box, will it slow it to a crawl, and introduce myriads of little
annoyances, or is it tolerable?

--
Democracy is a form of government that substitutes election by the
incompetent many for appointment by the corrupt few. - G. B. Shaw

Advertisements

"Max Quordlepleen" <> wrote in message
news:...
> I have been sticking with SP2 since I don't like the "all your soul
> are belong to us" EULA of SP3, and loathe the idea of having to
> install that verdammte .NET garbage. Nevertheless, I am beginning to
> think that staying on SP2 may not be tenable much longer. Now that
> it's been out a while, what's the verdict on SP4? I'm running an
> Athlon XP2000+, 512MB RAM, RIVA TNT2 32MB video. Will SP4 totally fark
> my box, will it slow it to a crawl, and introduce myriads of little
> annoyances, or is it tolerable?
>
> --
> Democracy is a form of government that substitutes election by the
> incompetent many for appointment by the corrupt few. - G. B. Shaw

Max,

As a network admin that has jumped in with both feet on SP4 on many live
production servers I feel I am qualified to say that SP4 for Win2k is the
best Service Pack MS has ever produced.

You might want to take a Google for the software applications you use along
with SP4 to cover your own situation before you start, however if your
experience is like mine you will be pleased.

There is no noticable difference in speed. (Though the update itself is
LONG and quite large to DL so don't plan on doing a quick update, do it when
you have an hour to spare.)

Advertisements

"Max Quordlepleen" <> wrote in message
news:...
> I have been sticking with SP2 since I don't like the "all your soul
> are belong to us" EULA of SP3, and loathe the idea of having to
> install that verdammte .NET garbage. Nevertheless, I am beginning to
> think that staying on SP2 may not be tenable much longer. Now that
> it's been out a while, what's the verdict on SP4?
[snip]

==> Below are comments about probs w/SP4 that I have collected since
its release. Personally, I'm waiting for SP4a while continuing to use
SP3

C&P

Microsoft has released Windows 2000 Service Pack 4. Here are a number
of items of interest about the new service pack:

Microsoft has the complete list of fixes included in Windows 2000
Service Pack 4 listed at http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=327194.
Since the service packs are cumulative, SP4 includes the fixes from
all the previous Windows 2000 Service Packs. That page has links back
to the fix list for those, too.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------
How much space do you need to install Windows 2000 Service Pack 4. It
depends on two things: if you are using a backup folder, and if you
are installing from a distribution folder from a network or from the
CD or web. Using a backup folder will add 175 MB to your space
requirements. That might seem rather large, and you may be tempted to
skip that step. But that means you won't be able to uninstall SP4, and
considering Microsoft's track record of including bugs and
incompatibilities in a Service Pack, you probably want that safeguard.
If so, you will need 340 MB when installing from a CD or web, and 280
MB from a network.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------

Windows 2000 Service Pack 4 drops the Windows Media Tools (WMT) 4.1
package. If WMT is already installed, SP4 won't uninstall them,
however. The reason for this appears to be licensing issues with the
Microsoft MPEG-4 Video codec.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------
If you got some Windows 2000 pre-Service Pack 4 hotfixes directly from
Microsoft Product Support Services, they might cause a conflict with
Windows 2000 Service Pack 4. According to Microsoft, this is not an
issue with fixes that come from either Windows Update or the Windows
Download Center. You will know about the conflict during the SP4
installation, when installation will temporarily halt and an error
message will tell you about the conflict. Microsoft says you can
continue SP4 installation, and then get an updated fix afterwards.
These are the hot-fixes which may trigger the message: 811525; 812419;
813130; 814120; 815767; 816542; 816560; 816627; 816813; 816989;
817354; 817416; 817700; 818173; 818396; 818528; 818704; 818825;
818826; 819019; 819636; 819653; 819876; 820325; 820326; 820550;
820765; 820841; 821102; 821290; 821471; 822563. For more information
on this issue, see http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=822384.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------
There is a compatibility problem between Windows 2000 Service Pack 4
and the Cisco Aironet wireless network adapter. If you install the
Cisco Aironet Client utility with the PEAP option onto a Windows 2000
SP4 computer, you won't see PEAP on the Authentication tab, and all
the dialog boxes will be different and wrong. Microsoft says you will
need to go to Cisco to get the latest Aironet Client utility.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------
There are compatibility problems between Windows 2000 Service Pack 4
and Microsoft's own .NET Framework 1.0. Try to run one of the .NET
Framework-based program or Visual Studio .NET programs, you may see
one of many different error messages. As a fix, go tohttp://msdn.microsoft.com/netframework/downloads/howtoget.aspx and
find out how to get .NET 1.1.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------
There are compatibility problems between Windows 2000 Service Pack 4
and Symantec Norton Internet Security 2001 or Norton Personal Firewall
2001. Try to load a web page with Internet Explorer, and you will get
a time out error. Also, incoming call notification in Windows
NetMeeting may be delayed by a few minutes. Microsoft says you will
need to update the Symantec products.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------
Windows 2000 Service Pack 4 brings some new features. One is called
"Impersonate a client after authentication" and the other is "Create
global objects". Since they are new, existing programs may not
interact well with these features. Microsoft has some tips and
troubleshooting techniques athttp://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=821546.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------
There may be some version mis-match problems if you install the
Microsoft Security Update from bulletin MS03-011 onto a Windows 2000
Service Pack 4 computer that also has the Microsoft VM on it. The
error message will say that the SP version is newer than the update.
You will have to get the newest version of this security update, which
is called the 816093 security update, from the Windows Update Catalog.
For more details, see http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=820101.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------
6/25 There is a bug in Windows Media Player 9 that may let outsiders
in and rummage around in your media library, and possibly delete or
modify files (Aha! A backdoor for the record companies!). For the
outsider to gain access, you would need to be enticed to a
maliciously-designed website and click a link. An update to this is
available via Windows Update, and is also available here. Microsoft
credits Jelmer for finding this bug.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------
System adminimstrators who run Windows Media Services on a Windows
2000 server have some patching to do. A bug in the ISAPI Extension may
let an intruder in to run their own code on the server. A fix for this
can be downloaded here. Microsoft credits Brett Moore for finding this
bug.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------
I tried to boot up the 2K Pro machine yesterday and got the following
dialog
box immediately after POST.

Windows could not start because the following file is missing or
corrupt:
WINNT\System32\Config\System

You can attempt to repair this file by starting Windows Setup using
the
original Setup CD-Rom. Select 'r' at the first screen to start repair.
____

----------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------
* W2K SP4 Anecdotal Problems
First, thanks to all of you that took the time to describe the
different problems you encountered. You know who you are. Second, do
not see this as an attempt to knock SP4 and tell you to not deploy it.
This SP has hundreds of important security fixes, so it is important.
The main thing I am emphasizing is that you need to TEST, TEST, and
TEST in a non-production environment FIRST.

Names have been removed but otherwise left exactly the way they were
sent, so that you can get an idea of the general problem areas. We
hope that this will help some of you and help prevent some unplanned
downtime.

Now, keep in mind that these problems are coming up in site-specific
configurations, and that you would never see these in your own
environment. So,... test. These problems were not really put in
categories, but when you read them you will readily recognize similar
problems with earlier SP's like third party apps breaking, BSOD's,
applications hanging and the like. Here goes!
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------

I had the Indexing Service running on one of my W2K Pro Workstations,
and SP4 screwed up the Indexing Service so bad that I had to disable
the service and stop using it all together after the upgrade. My
advise to anyone using the Index service is to turn it off before you
do the SP4 update. I also had problems with the web site installation.
It failed on my two test machines. So I downloaded the service pack
and created a batch file to execute it from a network share. Worked
like a charm.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------

Here's a good one. Once SP4 is installed, PHOTODRAW is no longer
usable.

"photodrw.exe has generated errors and will be closed by windows."
shows up. The Microsoft Knowledgebase has a font based fix that has no
effect. Removal & reinstall also don't help. The only solution I found
was to remove SP4 until I can either figure out another fix or install
an Adobe product. Any thoughts?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------

Another oddity, it does not seem to remove it's temporary install
files.

I have used it about 5 times so far and I am always left with one of
it's randomly named folders on my root drive.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------

Very slow logon after installing Windows 2000 Service Pack 4. I am
running Citrix Metaframe 1.8 for Windows 2000 Release 1/SP4. After
installing Windows 2000 Server Service Pack 4, the logon to published
applications is very slow. The Windows 2000 Server banner screen
displaying: Applying your personal settings remains on the screen for
about 2 minutes then disappears, logon then continues to process in
the background. After about another 90 seconds the application finally
comes up. If anyone has a solution or suggestions, I would appreciate
the help. More on this at:http://ctxex10.citrix.com/forums/thread.jspa?forumID=1&threadID=35493&
start=0&tstart=0

Slow logon related to Redirection of Client Printers (if you disable
Client Printer Redirection or have no printers on the Client, issue
goes away). According to forum, Microsoft acknowledges the bug.
Interestingly enough, the RDP protocol doesn't suffer the same
problems.

I have tended to give Microsoft the benefit of the doubt in times past
in its judicial battles but this like the (NT 4 SP6 fiasco which
screwed my clients who used Lotus Notes) feels like another power
play.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------

MS W2K SP4 may be hazardous to your operation. Upgraded 5 W2K SP3 Dell
servers on Sunday without any indicated problems. At noon on Monday,
the user called in that one of the 3 "drives" was unavailable. Each
drive is ~1Tb. He was receiving "F:\ is not accessible error
performing inpage operation." I found additional errors indicating
that a "delayed write filed on \DEVICE\HardDriveVolume2\". Viewed the
comments being generated in the MS Community boards with still no
luck. Also, I was getting incomplete results from the Dell Open Manage
software. I was getting a blue screen of death
(KMODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED) with no indicated faulting module. Dell
and I traced the problem to the 3rd party driver (QLogic). Seems that
SP4 overlays the existing 3rd party SCSI card drivers with their own
version. We reloaded the correct version and the machine is up and
running. Your mileage may vary but I am looking for my current
installed working drivers before I install SP4 on anymore servers, I
still have 6 more to do.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------

We support a SQL 7.0/2000 environment here at our company. After
installing Windows 2000 Spak 4 I began getting an error every time I
load SQL 2000 Enterprise Manager.

We installed W2K SP4 on two of our machines. Both of them took several
minutes to process the initial login after a reboot and are also slow
at other times, too. We uninstalled SP4 from one of them and the
problems cleared up.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------

Regarding problems with SP4 for Windows 2000, here's two more to add;
After installing, Speedisk, from Norton Systemworks 2003 wouldn't even
launch, complaining about Windows NT & an unsupported service pack
level; and, Diskeeper Lite launched & promptly hung, needing to be
blasted out with Task Manager ...

From a high grade network/security expert. "DONT TALK TO ME ABOUT
SP4!!!". Apparently it blatted his VPN functionality by fragmenting
previously integral VPN packets. It may not be permanent. He thinks he
may be able to tune it with parameters like MTA. My personal
experience is from installing it on my graybox workstation at work as
a gunea pig.

It seems to perform slightly slower (not improbable given all the
boundry checks it must be doing now). However it may be subjective.
It is definitely less stable. I run about 20 programs on my PC at all
times and I leave it on forever. After SP4 I need to reboot it every 5
days or so, PC either freezes or behaves very unpredictably.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------

After installing the SP4 I have noticed that my asp_wp.exe does not
have rights to launch. so I thought to myself: "Huhhh??" evidently the
username/password in the config file no longer properly authenticate.
( machine in question is a backup DC) So I guess my asp.net sites are
down until I figure it out.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------

Issues with SP4. It does not upgrade the JVM to the "necessary"
version 3810. I loaded this onto an existing server with SP3 and JVM
3805. It kept the same JVM. SP3 updated it. If SP4 is loaded first and
you try the upgrade it will tell you it will not do it because the
update was designed for SP3. I am waiting to see if MS fixes this
before rolling it out.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------

After installing W2K SP4 on my laptop which also has Novell client
4.83SP1, the machine simply will not see the Novell network at login
time. The workaround is to just login to Windows, then login to Novell
after the Windows login is complete.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------

One problem I've found is with Application Center Test... No longer
does the testing app work. Can't connect to itself (single client) for
stress testing. Registration errors and such. I've followed some of
the KB articles to repair, uninstalls, reinstalls of ACT do no good.
Opening a case with MS today. KB's to fix old ACT probs: 318956 318849
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------

If you haven't seen this one yet: Captaris has notified us that
Windows 2000 Service Pack 4 is not supported by RightFax. If SP4 is
installed on a RightFax server or on a client that has the RightFax
application installed Enterprise Fax Manager will stop functioning.
The same issue occurs when installing EFM on Windows 2003. Captaris is
aware of the issue and currently is testing a Hotfix.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
---------

SP 4 - Killed IIS. I installed SP4 on a non-production machine first.
Everything went well for several days of testing, so I decided to
upgrade ONE of the production boxes. The one with the least amount of
3rd party stuff installed to eliminate problems. It only serves
webpages. I figured that was safe... Wrong. SP4 for some reason killed
URLSCAN. URLSCAN was so messed up that it was rejecting ALL verbs to
IIS (including GET - which you kind of need!). After about 4 hours of
troubleshooting and many posts to the newsgroups I was getting ready
to uninstall IIS when I remember that URLSCAN was on the machine. I
uninstalled it and everything started working. Reinstalled and
everything works now as well. Went back and reviewed the logs and at
the exact time of the SP4 install URLSCAN lost the INI file. Could not
read it so it decided that no verbs should be processed. Strange.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------

Well, being ultra conservative on SP3 (or just now getting around to
feeling the need ...) we just put that on a box and found the relay
restrictions change there too. There may be several patches over time
that 'fix' that setting for you.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------

I installed W2K SP4 on my desktop at home. The next day it was
uninstalled. Seems it causes the processor to run at 100% all the
time. A real pain. Now my system is running as normal. Bill better
shape the testing department up.

I did trust Microsoft too much and updated SP4 on my W2K-Server. After
that

No Internet connection over DSL nor cable (MS Proxy-Server).
No SQL connection (local and remote).
No shutdown (only possible over Powerswitch!)
I did not check why - just removing SP4 as quickly as possible. It
works fine with SP3 !! (Never change a running system !!) In
Switzerland we say - never wake a sleeping dog.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------

Installed on a DC with exchange running, I have had to reboot 3 times
since SP4 was put on it. I haven't pin pointed the real problem, but
think it's IIS and or OWA. Processor runs higher now at 75-80%
constant during reg. day. I have a 2nd processor to go in it, to see
if it's a fix (band-aid). Since the SP4 fixed some kernel problems, it
might have created some. The Processes now take 50% of processor, then
30-40 % is users, so add them together, server is running hard.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------

After installing Win2k SP4 on two boxes (one standard server, one
professional), I noticed some spontaneous reboots. When reviewing the
event logs for the nodes, I concluded this only started happening
after the SP4 deployments. The boxes have different hardware and apps
running on them... so I'm not chalking it up to a software
incompatibility. Anyways, before upgrading the bulk of my network, I
might wait until an "SP4a" comes out (or at least wait until a larger
userbase performs the upgrades to see how they fare).
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------

When I installed SP4 on my development box, the installation went
without and error messages. However upon re-start of the machine, the
WWW service would not start and remainined just in the "starting"
state. I had to disable the WWW service and re-boot before I could get
SP4 to de-install. Full details were reported at:http://www.asp.net/Forums/ShowPost.aspx?tabindex=1&PostID=263287

Needless to say SP4 is not going near any of our production IIS
servers, until SP4a comes out and works on my development box.

SP 4 simply won't install on my workstation. Turned off my virus
scanner before I started. Failed anyway. It's a ComPaq Evo 6000.
Pretty new machine. I run the Windows update and keep it up-to-date.
Only thing I can think of that's possibly different: it has Cisco's
VPN client on it and Novell's Client 32 with all that other Novell
stuff...

I haven't had a chance to see the MS KB Articles yet, but I know that
when I installed 2000 SP4 on 3 of my computers last week, that 2 went
okay, but one had it's internal, and external (Internet) connectivity
cut down to the level of a 300 baud modem. Acckkkk.... I checked,
uninstalled, and reinstalled all hardware involved in my system (nic,
etc.) and nothing fixed the problem, I had to roll that PC back to SP3
to get it's network connectivity back to a normal status.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------

We've had very poor luck with SP4 so far. The first test system I
loaded it onto finished installing, and then proceeded to blue screen
at every reboot. Turned out that SP4 doesn't like the Pinnacle DV
capture card we were using. Once we pulled the card, the system would
boot properly. The second system we loaded it onto we attempted to use
the system recovery options when it immediately started rebooting
prior to reaching the logon prompt. That was a mistake - the system
just started blue screening. We ended up scrubbing and reloading the
second system. I'm incredibly unimpressed with MS tech support's
stance on this - "Yes, our web site does list SP4 as a critical
update. Yes, we told you to install it. Now pay us $245 to help you
fix the problem." Makes me reconsider our position on Novell and
Linux.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------

Service pack 4 removes the settings on the Netmeeting and have to
configure it all over again.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------

Installed it on a perfectly working sp3 with all updates system. (My
personal one). Wouldn't finish loading windows just sort of froze and
could only complete in safe mode. After troubleshooting this to no
avail and only being able to do a safe mode boot I booted safe mode
and uninstalled the sp4. Then I could only boot to unexpected kernel
blah blah blah blue screen. No safe mode etc. Tried repair console,
auto repair, didn't have ERD (yeah I know) or image so tried parallel
install, no dice finally had to totally reinstall. The reinstall and
several other installations have allowed sp4 to install without
problems. Bad karma, don't know.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------

We have about 50 machines here. We test-installed SP4 on a relatively
new Dell desktop (mine), and immediately got a blue screen. Booted
into Safe Mode and uninstalled SP4, and the machine works fine.
Reinstalled SP4 and more blue screens. Uninstalled it for the time
being. Dell is uninterested in solving the problem, and refers me to
MS. I haven't had time to really delve into the causes of the problem
yet.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------

I am running Office 2000 with Office 2000 SP3. Immediately after the
application of Windows 2000 SP4 (i.e. I had previously been keeping up
with post-SP3 Hotfixes too) it trashed my mapi32.dll. Now I cannot
email meaningful attachments & while attempting emailing attachments
mapi32.dll pukes. Sidebar .. I currently run Norton Antivirus 2002
(i.e. with current signature files) running and scanning all inbound &
outbound attachments. As a bandaid I turned off outbound scanning on
email .. this did not fix problem either. That's the scoop on my end
RE experience with SP4.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------

Well Stu, love your articles, but I just installed service pack 4 on
more than 15 Servers and everything seems to be fine for now, will get
back to you when something looks different. P.S servers are Oracle,
SQL, IIS, Exchange 2000, Exchange 5.5, DC, File Servers......
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------

Downloaded from Microsoft their install file and ran it last night.
After about a half hour, as the install was wrapping up, I got a setup
error and was given the choice to cancel (reverse out of the upgrade)
or accept (accept partial upgrade). Being ever suspicious of Windows,
I chose the first and returned, thankfully, to my pre-SP4 state. I am
operating as before but I wasted an hour. I suspect I am not going to
be alone in this. I'll wait for the upgrade to the upgrade.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------

We installed SP4 on several workstations and a couple of scientific
instruments that use W2K as their host OS. Zero problems. Issues may
be limited to server apps (which still is pretty bad).

I installed SP4 on my home computer to resolve minor problems. Now, I
see an increase in the CPU and NIC processes to the point that
periodically I lose my IP Address provided by my ISP. I opened a
ticket with MS and was told that this condition was seen with several
3Com and Intel NIC and that I should try a different NIC. My NIC is a
DLINK and when I reported that back to MS, they told me that I needed
to turn off my Virus Scan and my Firewall (McAfee and ZoneAlarm)
software. Are they nuts or what. ZoneAlarm has blocked several
attempts to "hack" or scan my computer recently and I won't run a
computer without some sort of Virus Scan software on it. I think the
only solution is to back off SP4 and wait for SP4 w/hotfixes.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------

SP4 was failing on any machine with IIS running. Here is Microsofts
Response, basically you must stop IIS and all related services prior
to the service pack install.

"We are experiencing problems with SP4 installation with IIS running,
and our Development team is aware of the issue and is looking into it.
We might have an update coming out soon but its too early to say. In
the mean time If you are looking for an easy way to work around this
you could use a batch file that stops the services before launching
the SP4 installer. This would be done by issuing the following command
in a batch file before the SP4 installer is launched.

NET STOP IISADMIN
NET STOP W3SVC
Those two commands should stop the necessary services and allow the
service pack to install. For question 2, I want you to know that we
apply all updates even if the services are stopped, so there is no
need to worry that something was missed due to the services being
stopped. Our development team is aware of the issue, and is working to
determine what is causing it, and once this is known we will know more
about what we can do to prevent it before we attempt to install the
service pack."
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------

Here's something to add to the SP4 headache list. Everything ran fine
until the update tried to register sp4iis - regsvr32 gave an "Error
Code: 5" and the update stopped, warning me to repair my system. I
remember "Repairing my system" under NT basically fried my active
desktop and meant that I was pretty much starting from scratch again,
so I'm not tempted to do THAT again. With great trepidation, I
rebooted my system (just to see if it would come up). Everything
booted fine, told me I was still running SP3 and four subsequent
attempts (even in Safe Mode) to install SP4 ended the same way. I
guess my system just wasn't meant to run SP4 ;-)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------

SP4 trashed my sony VAIO laptop. I had to get the repair console on
floppies and run fixmbr, fixboot, and also copy the ntldr and
ntdetect.com files from my XP machine to get it to work. Luckily, MS
helped me for free. After the install, I got black screens of death.
First Trap 6, then Trap D. Yuck
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------

We recently installed Windows 2000 SP 4 on a PC we were using as a
console to our IBM AS/400. The PC had W2kSP3, iSeries Access software
with latest service patch, that's all. After we installed Service Pack
4 we could no longer connect to the AS/400 Operations Console, we
constantly received the "cwbopcon.exe has generated errors". Once I
uninstalled the SP4 I could connect to the Operations Console without
a hitch.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------

Regarding SP4 - after installation computer started to reload itself
constantly even without letting me to logon. After safe mode uninstall
computer came back to usual behavior Microsoft teaches as lesson again
and again: "wait couple months after new product comes.

Win 2000 SP4 broke my ASPX websites :-( Unhelpful security errors, but
in fact re-routing the aspx App Mappings in IIS to pick up the .Net
v1.0 aspnet_isapi.dll instead of the .Net v1.1 version of it got us
all back and running nicely again.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------

So far the only thing we have come across is that applying SP4
re-configures the MS SUS to interact with the MS Internet service. We
close it down and use a local update server to perform the update of
workstations. BTW You may wish readers to reminisce about the biggest
stuff-ups with Windows SP's. Here are the ones I have come across in
Windows NT/2K/2K3 service packs have been (in order of severity):

Maybe another issue in w2ksp4? Exchange2kEnterprise Front end server
with sp3 as http proxy for OWA, previously installed IISLockDown tool
2.1 and Urlscan-SRP 2.5, WebDav disabled. After installing w2ksp4 I
found WebDav enabled ! I will investigate further for additional
critical changes.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------

I tried installing Windows 2000 Service Pack 4 on computers that have
the Windows 2000 MSDN version installed and it does not work at all.
When you start the upgrade, there is an error message that comes up
that says: "The cores system file (kernel) used to start this computer
is not a Microsoft Windows file. The Service Pack will not be
installed. For more information, see Knowledge Base article at:
http://support.microsoft.com."

Guess what: there is no Knowledge Base article that mentions anything
about this issue yet! Am I going to have to upgrade my MSDN machine to
the full working copy? I pasted a screenshot of this error below for
your enjoyment. I'm sure I'm not the only one...
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------

We installed SP4 on a relatively new build. That is, I had a crash and
rebuilt the server. I had put SP3 on at the start, then all the hot
fixes, and then started reloading apps. At the end, I found SP4 had
been released, so like a plonker, I installed it. Bad mistake. This
made the uptime of the server measured in hours! The thing would crash
and reboot at whim. Sometimes, I would be working on my desk on
papers, and the system rebooted infront of my eyes. Taking SP4 off did
not improve the situation.

So, back to a clean install, and this time I loaded W2K then SP4, then
all hot fixes and it is now very stable (well, it's been running for 5
days!).

Funilly enough, I was in an office earlier in the week and I saw a
helpdesk techie standing by the senior traders desk, and the screen
seemed to have lost horizontal and vertical sync. It was rolling in
both directions, just like those old TV's used to. And this on a new
18" flat screen monitor. Needless to say, techie was looking unhappy
and not at all looking forward to telling the trader his main PC was
now just a buncg of black-legging binary bits. I asked what he had
done - installed SP4. This one cured itself with a couple of reboots,
and now seems stable.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------

SYMPTOMSAfter you upgrade your computer to Windows 2000 Service Pack 4
(SP4), you may experience all the following symptoms:
The following events appear in the system log of the Event Viewer:
Source: RemoteAccess
Category: None
Event ID: 20071
Date: date
Time: time
Type: Error
User: N/A
Computer: ComputerName
Description: The Point to Point Protocol module
C:\WINNT\System32\rastls.dll returned an error while initializing. The
network request is not supported.

-and-

Source: RemoteAccess
Category: None
Event ID: 20151
Date: date
Time: time
Type: Error
User: N/A
Computer: ComputerName
Description: The Control Protocol EAP in the Point to Point Protocol
module C:\WINNT\System32\rasppp.dll returned an error while
initializing. The network request is not supported.

The following event appears in the application log of the Event
Viewer:
Source: rasctrs
Category: None
Event ID: 2001
Date: date
Time: time
Type: Error
User: N/A
Computer: ComputerName
Description: The description for Event ID (2001) in Source (rasctrs)
cannot be found. The local computer may not have the necessary
registry information or message DLL files to display messages from a
remote computer. The following information is part of the event: The
event log file is corrupt.

If you try to create a new dial-up connection, some of the options are
unavailable (appear dimmed).
CAUSE This problem occurs if both of the following conditions exist:
You upgrade a Windows 2000 Service Pack 3 (SP3)-based computer to
Windows 2000 SP4.
You have not configured the Routing and Remote Access service or a
remote access dial-up connection on the computer that you upgrade to
Windows 2000 SP4.
WORKAROUNDTo work around this problem, restart the computer. When you
restart the computer, all the remote access binary files are brought
up to date.
STATUSMicrosoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft
products that are listed at the beginning of this article.
MORE INFORMATIONWhen you install Windows 2000 SP4 on a Windows 2000
SP3-based computer that does not have the Routing and Remote Access
service or the remote access dial-up connections configured, some of
the remote access-related binary files are immediately replaced.
Specifically, when Setup installs support for 802.1X, the
initialization of these new binary files and the mismatch between the
new and old binary files causes the events that are described in the
"Symptoms" section of this article to appear in Windows 2000 Event
Viewer. (Note that support for 802.1X is new in SP4.) This also causes
some dial-up connection options to be unavailable. You must restart
the computer before these updated files can be used. This issue does
not occur when you install SP4 on a Windows 2000 SP3-based computer
that has the Routing and Remote Access service or remote access
connections configured. In this case, none of the remote access binary
files are replaced until the computer is restarted because the files
are in use.
Last Reviewed: 7/27/2003
Keywords: kbpending kbBug kbprb KB823405 kbAudITPRO
----------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------
* W2K SP4 Anecdotal Problems
First, thanks to all of you that took the time to describe the
different problems you encountered. You know who you are. Second, do
not see this as an attempt to knock SP4 and tell you to not deploy it.
This SP has hundreds of important security fixes, so it is important.
The main thing I am emphasizing is that you need to TEST, TEST, and
TEST in a non-production environment FIRST.

Names have been removed but otherwise left exactly the way they were
sent, so that you can get an idea of the general problem areas. We
hope that this will help some of you and help prevent some unplanned
downtime.

Now, keep in mind that these problems are coming up in site-specific
configurations, and that you would never see these in your own
environment. So,... test. These problems were not really put in
categories, but when you read them you will readily recognize similar
problems with earlier SP's like third party apps breaking, BSOD's,
applications hanging and the like. Here goes!
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------

I had the Indexing Service running on one of my W2K Pro Workstations,
and SP4 screwed up the Indexing Service so bad that I had to disable
the service and stop using it all together after the upgrade. My
advise to anyone using the Index service is to turn it off before you
do the SP4 update. I also had problems with the web site installation.
It failed on my two test machines. So I downloaded the service pack
and created a batch file to execute it from a network share. Worked
like a charm.

Here's a good one. Once SP4 is installed, PHOTODRAW is no longer
usable.

"photodrw.exe has generated errors and will be closed by windows."
shows up. The Microsoft Knowledgebase has a font based fix that has no
effect. Removal & reinstall also don't help. The only solution I found
was to remove SP4 until I can either figure out another fix or install
an Adobe product. Any thoughts?

Very slow logon after installing Windows 2000 Service Pack 4. I am
running Citrix Metaframe 1.8 for Windows 2000 Release 1/SP4. After
installing Windows 2000 Server Service Pack 4, the logon to published
applications is very slow. The Windows 2000 Server banner screen
displaying: Applying your personal settings remains on the screen for
about 2 minutes then disappears, logon then continues to process in
the background. After about another 90 seconds the application finally
comes up. If anyone has a solution or suggestions, I would appreciate
the help. More on this at:http://ctxex10.citrix.com/forums/thread.jspa?forumID=1&threadID=35493&
start=0&tstart=0

Slow logon related to Redirection of Client Printers (if you disable
Client Printer Redirection or have no printers on the Client, issue
goes away). According to forum, Microsoft acknowledges the bug.
Interestingly enough, the RDP protocol doesn't suffer the same
problems.

I have tended to give Microsoft the benefit of the doubt in times past
in its judicial battles but this like the (NT 4 SP6 fiasco which
screwed my clients who used Lotus Notes) feels like another power
play.

MS W2K SP4 may be hazardous to your operation. Upgraded 5 W2K SP3 Dell
servers on Sunday without any indicated problems. At noon on Monday,
the user called in that one of the 3 "drives" was unavailable. Each
drive is ~1Tb. He was receiving "F:\ is not accessible error
performing inpage operation." I found additional errors indicating
that a "delayed write filed on \DEVICE\HardDriveVolume2\". Viewed the
comments being generated in the MS Community boards with still no
luck. Also, I was getting incomplete results from the Dell Open Manage
software. I was getting a blue screen of death
(KMODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED) with no indicated faulting module. Dell
and I traced the problem to the 3rd party driver (QLogic). Seems that
SP4 overlays the existing 3rd party SCSI card drivers with their own
version. We reloaded the correct version and the machine is up and
running. Your mileage may vary but I am looking for my current
installed working drivers before I install SP4 on anymore servers, I
still have 6 more to do.

We installed W2K SP4 on two of our machines. Both of them took several
minutes to process the initial login after a reboot and are also slow
at other times, too. We uninstalled SP4 from one of them and the
problems cleared up.

From a high grade network/security expert. "DONT TALK TO ME ABOUT
SP4!!!". Apparently it blatted his VPN functionality by fragmenting
previously integral VPN packets. It may not be permanent. He thinks he
may be able to tune it with parameters like MTA. My personal
experience is from installing it on my graybox workstation at work as
a gunea pig.

It seems to perform slightly slower (not improbable given all the
boundry checks it must be doing now). However it may be subjective.
It is definitely less stable. I run about 20 programs on my PC at all
times and I leave it on forever. After SP4 I need to reboot it every 5
days or so, PC either freezes or behaves very unpredictably.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------

After installing the SP4 I have noticed that my asp_wp.exe does not
have rights to launch. so I thought to myself: "Huhhh??" evidently the
username/password in the config file no longer properly authenticate.
( machine in question is a backup DC) So I guess my asp.net sites are
down until I figure it out.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------

Issues with SP4. It does not upgrade the JVM to the "necessary"
version 3810. I loaded this onto an existing server with SP3 and JVM
3805. It kept the same JVM. SP3 updated it. If SP4 is loaded first and
you try the upgrade it will tell you it will not do it because the
update was designed for SP3. I am waiting to see if MS fixes this
before rolling it out.

After installing W2K SP4 on my laptop which also has Novell client
4.83SP1, the machine simply will not see the Novell network at login
time. The workaround is to just login to Windows, then login to Novell
after the Windows login is complete.

One problem I've found is with Application Center Test... No longer
does the testing app work. Can't connect to itself (single client) for
stress testing. Registration errors and such. I've followed some of
the KB articles to repair, uninstalls, reinstalls of ACT do no good.
Opening a case with MS today. KB's to fix old ACT probs: 318956 318849
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------

If you haven't seen this one yet: Captaris has notified us that
Windows 2000 Service Pack 4 is not supported by RightFax. If SP4 is
installed on a RightFax server or on a client that has the RightFax
application installed Enterprise Fax Manager will stop functioning.
The same issue occurs when installing EFM on Windows 2003. Captaris is
aware of the issue and currently is testing a Hotfix.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------

SP 4 - Killed IIS. I installed SP4 on a non-production machine first.
Everything went well for several days of testing, so I decided to
upgrade ONE of the production boxes. The one with the least amount of
3rd party stuff installed to eliminate problems. It only serves
webpages. I figured that was safe... Wrong. SP4 for some reason killed
URLSCAN. URLSCAN was so messed up that it was rejecting ALL verbs to
IIS (including GET - which you kind of need!). After about 4 hours of
troubleshooting and many posts to the newsgroups I was getting ready
to uninstall IIS when I remember that URLSCAN was on the machine. I
uninstalled it and everything started working. Reinstalled and
everything works now as well. Went back and reviewed the logs and at
the exact time of the SP4 install URLSCAN lost the INI file. Could not
read it so it decided that no verbs should be processed. Strange.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------

Well, being ultra conservative on SP3 (or just now getting around to
feeling the need ...) we just put that on a box and found the relay
restrictions change there too. There may be several patches over time
that 'fix' that setting for you.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------

I installed W2K SP4 on my desktop at home. The next day it was
uninstalled. Seems it causes the processor to run at 100% all the
time. A real pain. Now my system is running as normal. Bill better
shape the testing department up.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------

I did trust Microsoft too much and updated SP4 on my W2K-Server. After
that

No Internet connection over DSL nor cable (MS Proxy-Server).
No SQL connection (local and remote).
No shutdown (only possible over Powerswitch!)
I did not check why - just removing SP4 as quickly as possible. It
works fine with SP3 !! (Never change a running system !!) In
Switzerland we say - never wake a sleeping dog.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------

Installed on a DC with exchange running, I have had to reboot 3 times
since SP4 was put on it. I haven't pin pointed the real problem, but
think it's IIS and or OWA. Processor runs higher now at 75-80%
constant during reg. day. I have a 2nd processor to go in it, to see
if it's a fix (band-aid). Since the SP4 fixed some kernel problems, it
might have created some. The Processes now take 50% of processor, then
30-40 % is users, so add them together, server is running hard.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------

After installing Win2k SP4 on two boxes (one standard server, one
professional), I noticed some spontaneous reboots. When reviewing the
event logs for the nodes, I concluded this only started happening
after the SP4 deployments. The boxes have different hardware and apps
running on them... so I'm not chalking it up to a software
incompatibility. Anyways, before upgrading the bulk of my network, I
might wait until an "SP4a" comes out (or at least wait until a larger
userbase performs the upgrades to see how they fare).

When I installed SP4 on my development box, the installation went
without and error messages. However upon re-start of the machine, the
WWW service would not start and remainined just in the "starting"
state. I had to disable the WWW service and re-boot before I could get
SP4 to de-install. Full details were reported at:http://www.asp.net/Forums/ShowPost.aspx?tabindex=1&PostID=263287

Needless to say SP4 is not going near any of our production IIS
servers, until SP4a comes out and works on my development box.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------

SP 4 simply won't install on my workstation. Turned off my virus
scanner before I started. Failed anyway. It's a ComPaq Evo 6000.
Pretty new machine. I run the Windows update and keep it up-to-date.
Only thing I can think of that's possibly different: it has Cisco's
VPN client on it and Novell's Client 32 with all that other Novell
stuff...
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------

I haven't had a chance to see the MS KB Articles yet, but I know that
when I installed 2000 SP4 on 3 of my computers last week, that 2 went
okay, but one had it's internal, and external (Internet) connectivity
cut down to the level of a 300 baud modem. Acckkkk.... I checked,
uninstalled, and reinstalled all hardware involved in my system (nic,
etc.) and nothing fixed the problem, I had to roll that PC back to SP3
to get it's network connectivity back to a normal status.

We've had very poor luck with SP4 so far. The first test system I
loaded it onto finished installing, and then proceeded to blue screen
at every reboot. Turned out that SP4 doesn't like the Pinnacle DV
capture card we were using. Once we pulled the card, the system would
boot properly. The second system we loaded it onto we attempted to use
the system recovery options when it immediately started rebooting
prior to reaching the logon prompt. That was a mistake - the system
just started blue screening. We ended up scrubbing and reloading the
second system. I'm incredibly unimpressed with MS tech support's
stance on this - "Yes, our web site does list SP4 as a critical
update. Yes, we told you to install it. Now pay us $245 to help you
fix the problem." Makes me reconsider our position on Novell and
Linux.

Service pack 4 removes the settings on the Netmeeting and have to
configure it all over again.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------

Installed it on a perfectly working sp3 with all updates system. (My
personal one). Wouldn't finish loading windows just sort of froze and
could only complete in safe mode. After troubleshooting this to no
avail and only being able to do a safe mode boot I booted safe mode
and uninstalled the sp4. Then I could only boot to unexpected kernel
blah blah blah blue screen. No safe mode etc. Tried repair console,
auto repair, didn't have ERD (yeah I know) or image so tried parallel
install, no dice finally had to totally reinstall. The reinstall and
several other installations have allowed sp4 to install without
problems. Bad karma, don't know.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------

We have about 50 machines here. We test-installed SP4 on a relatively
new Dell desktop (mine), and immediately got a blue screen. Booted
into Safe Mode and uninstalled SP4, and the machine works fine.
Reinstalled SP4 and more blue screens. Uninstalled it for the time
being. Dell is uninterested in solving the problem, and refers me to
MS. I haven't had time to really delve into the causes of the problem
yet.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------

I am running Office 2000 with Office 2000 SP3. Immediately after the
application of Windows 2000 SP4 (i.e. I had previously been keeping up
with post-SP3 Hotfixes too) it trashed my mapi32.dll. Now I cannot
email meaningful attachments & while attempting emailing attachments
mapi32.dll pukes. Sidebar .. I currently run Norton Antivirus 2002
(i.e. with current signature files) running and scanning all inbound &
outbound attachments. As a bandaid I turned off outbound scanning on
email .. this did not fix problem either. That's the scoop on my end
RE experience with SP4.

Well Stu, love your articles, but I just installed service pack 4 on
more than 15 Servers and everything seems to be fine for now, will get
back to you when something looks different. P.S servers are Oracle,
SQL, IIS, Exchange 2000, Exchange 5.5, DC, File Servers......

Downloaded from Microsoft their install file and ran it last night.
After about a half hour, as the install was wrapping up, I got a setup
error and was given the choice to cancel (reverse out of the upgrade)
or accept (accept partial upgrade). Being ever suspicious of Windows,
I chose the first and returned, thankfully, to my pre-SP4 state. I am
operating as before but I wasted an hour. I suspect I am not going to
be alone in this. I'll wait for the upgrade to the upgrade.

I installed SP4 on my home computer to resolve minor problems. Now, I
see an increase in the CPU and NIC processes to the point that
periodically I lose my IP Address provided by my ISP. I opened a
ticket with MS and was told that this condition was seen with several
3Com and Intel NIC and that I should try a different NIC. My NIC is a
DLINK and when I reported that back to MS, they told me that I needed
to turn off my Virus Scan and my Firewall (McAfee and ZoneAlarm)
software. Are they nuts or what. ZoneAlarm has blocked several
attempts to "hack" or scan my computer recently and I won't run a
computer without some sort of Virus Scan software on it. I think the
only solution is to back off SP4 and wait for SP4 w/hotfixes.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------

SP4 was failing on any machine with IIS running. Here is Microsofts
Response, basically you must stop IIS and all related services prior
to the service pack install.

"We are experiencing problems with SP4 installation with IIS running,
and our Development team is aware of the issue and is looking into it.
We might have an update coming out soon but its too early to say. In
the mean time If you are looking for an easy way to work around this
you could use a batch file that stops the services before launching
the SP4 installer. This would be done by issuing the following command
in a batch file before the SP4 installer is launched.

NET STOP IISADMIN
NET STOP W3SVC
Those two commands should stop the necessary services and allow the
service pack to install. For question 2, I want you to know that we
apply all updates even if the services are stopped, so there is no
need to worry that something was missed due to the services being
stopped. Our development team is aware of the issue, and is working to
determine what is causing it, and once this is known we will know more
about what we can do to prevent it before we attempt to install the
service pack."

Here's something to add to the SP4 headache list. Everything ran fine
until the update tried to register sp4iis - regsvr32 gave an "Error
Code: 5" and the update stopped, warning me to repair my system. I
remember "Repairing my system" under NT basically fried my active
desktop and meant that I was pretty much starting from scratch again,
so I'm not tempted to do THAT again. With great trepidation, I
rebooted my system (just to see if it would come up). Everything
booted fine, told me I was still running SP3 and four subsequent
attempts (even in Safe Mode) to install SP4 ended the same way. I
guess my system just wasn't meant to run SP4 ;-)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------

SP4 trashed my sony VAIO laptop. I had to get the repair console on
floppies and run fixmbr, fixboot, and also copy the ntldr and
ntdetect.com files from my XP machine to get it to work. Luckily, MS
helped me for free. After the install, I got black screens of death.
First Trap 6, then Trap D. Yuck
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------

We recently installed Windows 2000 SP 4 on a PC we were using as a
console to our IBM AS/400. The PC had W2kSP3, iSeries Access software
with latest service patch, that's all. After we installed Service Pack
4 we could no longer connect to the AS/400 Operations Console, we
constantly received the "cwbopcon.exe has generated errors". Once I
uninstalled the SP4 I could connect to the Operations Console without
a hitch.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------

Regarding SP4 - after installation computer started to reload itself
constantly even without letting me to logon. After safe mode uninstall
computer came back to usual behavior Microsoft teaches as lesson again
and again: "wait couple months after new product comes.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------

Win 2000 SP4 broke my ASPX websites :-( Unhelpful security errors, but
in fact re-routing the aspx App Mappings in IIS to pick up the .Net
v1.0 aspnet_isapi.dll instead of the .Net v1.1 version of it got us
all back and running nicely again.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------

So far the only thing we have come across is that applying SP4
re-configures the MS SUS to interact with the MS Internet service. We
close it down and use a local update server to perform the update of
workstations. BTW You may wish readers to reminisce about the biggest
stuff-ups with Windows SP's. Here are the ones I have come across in
Windows NT/2K/2K3 service packs have been (in order of severity):

Maybe another issue in w2ksp4? Exchange2kEnterprise Front end server
with sp3 as http proxy for OWA, previously installed IISLockDown tool
2.1 and Urlscan-SRP 2.5, WebDav disabled. After installing w2ksp4 I
found WebDav enabled ! I will investigate further for additional
critical changes.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------

I tried installing Windows 2000 Service Pack 4 on computers that have
the Windows 2000 MSDN version installed and it does not work at all.
When you start the upgrade, there is an error message that comes up
that says: "The cores system file (kernel) used to start this computer
is not a Microsoft Windows file. The Service Pack will not be
installed. For more information, see Knowledge Base article at:
http://support.microsoft.com."

Guess what: there is no Knowledge Base article that mentions anything
about this issue yet! Am I going to have to upgrade my MSDN machine to
the full working copy? I pasted a screenshot of this error below for
your enjoyment. I'm sure I'm not the only one...
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------

We installed SP4 on a relatively new build. That is, I had a crash and
rebuilt the server. I had put SP3 on at the start, then all the hot
fixes, and then started reloading apps. At the end, I found SP4 had
been released, so like a plonker, I installed it. Bad mistake. This
made the uptime of the server measured in hours! The thing would crash
and reboot at whim. Sometimes, I would be working on my desk on
papers, and the system rebooted infront of my eyes. Taking SP4 off did
not improve the situation.

So, back to a clean install, and this time I loaded W2K then SP4, then
all hot fixes and it is now very stable (well, it's been running for 5
days!).

Funilly enough, I was in an office earlier in the week and I saw a
helpdesk techie standing by the senior traders desk, and the screen
seemed to have lost horizontal and vertical sync. It was rolling in
both directions, just like those old TV's used to. And this on a new
18" flat screen monitor. Needless to say, techie was looking unhappy
and not at all looking forward to telling the trader his main PC was
now just a buncg of black-legging binary bits. I asked what he had
done - installed SP4. This one cured itself with a couple of reboots,
and now seems stable.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------

"Well, here are the first fixes for the fix (already)(again).
Check out these MS KB Articles: 195008, 819332, 821892, 822140,
822626, 823405, and 823441.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
NewsGroup Posting; toolfox.software.w2k-nt-xp
Mrs pB wrote:
> Running Windows 2000. Just installed SP4 last night, nothing else.
>
> SERVICES.EXE is running at 99% and one other process is running at
1%
> (varies as to which process it is). It shoots up to 100% CPU usage
> when I send mail, browse through IE6, and checks newsgroups. It
does
> this every time I close or minimise a programme. It stays at 100%
> for a while, then drops down to its usual 1 or 2%.
>
>

"Max Quordlepleen" <> wrote in message
news:...
> I have been sticking with SP2 since I don't like the "all your soul
> are belong to us" EULA of SP3, and loathe the idea of having to
> install that verdammte .NET garbage. Nevertheless, I am beginning to
> think that staying on SP2 may not be tenable much longer. Now that
> it's been out a while, what's the verdict on SP4? I'm running an
> Athlon XP2000+, 512MB RAM, RIVA TNT2 32MB video. Will SP4 totally fark
> my box, will it slow it to a crawl, and introduce myriads of little
> annoyances, or is it tolerable?

1) .NET isn't included in SP4 (thankfully!)

2) Out of 75 machines I've done, only one has had a problem with
SP4. That, of course, was THIS machine ... my 2K Server I use at my house.
Now, THIS one, it farkled the boot so bad it couldn't boot. I had to
reinstall W2K to get it back up and running.

3) Overall, I give SP4 two thumbs up. It's as good as SP6 was in NT
4.0 ...

This is the Flibbydabby Dee Service of the BBC, & on Tue, 16 Sep 2003
11:46:15 +1200, Max Quordlepleen uttered this:
> I have been sticking with SP2 since I don't like the "all your soul
> are belong to us" EULA of SP3, and loathe the idea of having to
> install that verdammte .NET garbage. Nevertheless, I am beginning to
> think that staying on SP2 may not be tenable much longer. Now that
> it's been out a while, what's the verdict on SP4? I'm running an
> Athlon XP2000+, 512MB RAM, RIVA TNT2 32MB video. Will SP4 totally fark
> my box, will it slow it to a crawl, and introduce myriads of little
> annoyances, or is it tolerable?

In message <>, Max Quordlepleen <>
writes
>I have been sticking with SP2 since I don't like the "all your soul
>are belong to us" EULA of SP3, and loathe the idea of having to
>install that verdammte .NET garbage. Nevertheless, I am beginning to
>think that staying on SP2 may not be tenable much longer. Now that
>it's been out a while, what's the verdict on SP4? I'm running an
>Athlon XP2000+, 512MB RAM, RIVA TNT2 32MB video. Will SP4 totally fark
>my box, will it slow it to a crawl, and introduce myriads of little
>annoyances, or is it tolerable?

I upgraded from SP2 to SP4 about a fortnight ago and I've not really
noticed much difference - which is a good thing, I suppose. The
installation went very smoothly (I download the whole thing and ran it
from HD) and after the update I had two new control panel options which
allow you to switch things on and off (IE, OE) and an automatic update,
which I immediately disabled.

"JabberSmith" <> writes:
> You might want to take a Google for the software applications you
> use along with SP4 to cover your own situation before you start,
> however if your experience is like mine you will be pleased.

Thanks, Jabber, and thanks to everybody else who replied. I have taken
the plunge, and so far tI have been unable to notice a difference,
apart from having to authenticate hundreds of new dlls in my
firewall. <g>

Share This Page

Welcome to Velocity Reviews!

Welcome to the Velocity Reviews, the place to come for the latest tech news and reviews.

Please join our friendly community by clicking the button below - it only takes a few seconds and is totally free. You'll be able to chat with other enthusiasts and get tech help from other members.
Sign up now!